For a decent indication of the machismo coursing through the veins of Ben Stokes, take his answer to a hypothetical question posed before the second Test against Pakistan that starts in smoggy Multan on Friday.
The scenario was this: were his England team to find themselves nine wickets down going into the final over of a Test match, with 20 runs needed to win but Jimmy Anderson on strike, would the captain still want his No 11 to go for the win? “Yes,” came the one-word reply from Stokes, his eyes betraying no sense of mischief as he sat in the courtyard of the fortress-like team hotel in central Punjab, the sounds of a military helicopter and police sirens blaring from beyond its barbed-wired walls.
